... run, jump, fly ...

... lately I've been thinking about the power of primal scream therapy ... not necessarily to vent any repressed childhood trauma, but as a lusty stress release ... full throated yelling ... preferably into a stiff wind, well out of earshot of anyone who might be tempted to come to the rescue or dial 911 ... an emotional bloodletting, without any rorschach splatter ....









... one of the best ways to exorcise is to exercise ... so, fanned by the freedom of Brandon's Beach, Barbados, in a morning ritual before daily duty, I claimed for myself a gift of fantasy which cost no money, but proved priceless ... outsprinting Bolt and Asafa I shattered world records right there in the sand ... before rising above the Brazilian defense to head home a winner in the World Cup Final ... listen to the roar of that crowd! ...













... as I understand it stress is a killer ... and psychological disquiet can inhibit the most confident voice or the surest gait, especially affecting those of us who are prone to not making the most of what we are equipped with ... the effort of exertion and the purposeful use of lung is tantamout to meditation ... bringing a centered balance ... ballast in the keel ...




... in no time I am airborne ... not quite leaping tall buildings in a single bound but at least driving to the basket like Kobe, in a sport I don't even play ... momentary sanity hands off my Canon EOS Rebel to KP ... snap-snap-proof-print! ... I believe I can fly! ...

... note to self ... practice this more often ...

... karaoke and the cricket ...

... this is no secret or revelation ... most of us wish we could belt out a tune ... and, as we all know, there's an app for that! ... it's called karaoke, a word I don't recall hearing before it took the world by storm some decades ago ... everyone wants to be a SingStar ... take it from me, most actors would love to be singers ... in the same way that so many singers want to act ...


... often seen in a corny mood light, gifted pipes can turn karaoke into a fine art ...

... to others fantasy and fun is all that matters ...

... skip a few connecting thoughts with me as I leap from karaoke to the more crucial consideration of the sport known throughout the remains of the British Empire as ... cricket ...

... now, having alienated most of my readership with the very mention of these two scintillating topics ... in one devil-may-care post no less ... I continue in the knowledge that if you're still with me you've probably been to Barbados, know a few Bajans, or are from this reef-ringed, easternmost island of the Caribbean ... a place where karaoke enthusiasts abound and a constellation of cricketing superstars had their beginnings ...

... the Best Of Caribbean Tales Film Festival which opened with a screening of A Winter Tale attracted a vanguard of attendees to Barbados last week, surviving technical challenges to augur well for the future of filmmaking in the region ... those of us visiting couldn't miss the indelible nation-building stamp of larger-than-life players from the consecutive golden eras in West Indies Cricket history ...

... the triple-headed memorial to "The Three W's" (Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell, Clyde Leopold Walcott and Everton DeCourcy Weekes) at the UWI Cave Hill campus is a testament to favourite sons with great career stats, knighthood and a last initial in common ... when you add uber-cricketer Sir Garfield St. Aubyn Sobers, whose statue graces Bridgetown's showpiece Kensington Oval, and a host of other native greats you get the picture ... modestly put, this ground has been walked by some of the finest ...













... fast-forward to the present day and we find endemic underperformance within contemporary Caribbean cricket ... while listening to a shamefaced radio post-mortem of a Windies capitulation to unregarded Zimbabwe in a recent 20/20 match I was reminded of a standard Cowellian reproach to many an auditioner on American Idol ... "that sounded like karaoke," he's been known to say, when faced with soulless mimicry where authentic virtuosity is required ...

... in Barbados the pervasive pride in sporting achievement exists in tandem with respect for recreation ... typically, after a day of beach and required activities, we head out in search of food ... the colourful gazebo at the food village in Oistins is a popular spot which invariably has a karaoke set-up, complete with mellifluous DJ, interactive entertainment, good natured and light ... nary a boo nor bottle thrown ...














... a Wednesday night at Hal's Bar along the cosmopolitan St. Lawrence Gap strip provides unexpected entertainment ... there's Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, a superb Otis Redding, two Teddy Pendergrasses (Pendergrassi?) ... Marty Robbins, Waylon Jennings, all The Platters rolled into one man, some requisite rap-aoke ... and an unforgettable Tom Jones ...













... Bajans are also genuinely proud of their pop princess Rihanna ... right now she has many imitators-at-the-mic and may yet get a highway or round-about in her name ... might we even see her face on the money like the cricket gods? ...











... that's Sir Frank (who broke the colour barrier in 1958 to captain the West Indies team) on the fiver, partial and defaced to thwart counterfeiters ... but, the cricket world prays for current players to copy the example of excellence and translate it into something viable, in the tradition of the more interesting karaoke acts, who may lack in originality but can approximate or bring something bright to a performance ...

... we cling to the faith that a phenom or two will eventually come along, both in the music field and on the cricket pitch ... still, I know I'd be happy if in the meantime some young batsman/bowler/all-rounder could do a credible impression of Gordon Greenidge or Vanburn Holder or Keith Boyce, in the same way someone always does a spirited approximation of Billy Paul's "Me And Mrs. Jones" wherever there's karaoke ...

... well, why not? ... sure these are tough acts to follow ... but, as a case in point, there will always be Michael Jackson impersonators riffing on the Thriller's genius ... more often than not they'll be as blurry in their tribute as I am with my drive-by photography ... yet still, we do love 'em for trying ...

... get to work Tiger ...

... there've been ample opportunities to bla-bla-blog about the Woods-Nordegren affair recently ... I've resisted 'til now, while the pixels in the (what's wrong with this-)picture filled in ... a few are still missing but we've seen the pendulum shift from what happened ... to, what's going to happen ...

... life-lessons to recognize here are mixed in with a seductive kind of love potion number nine-iron ... (sorry) ... still, I'm betting that every one of us can remember a time in their lives when contrition was their lifeline to self-respect ... Tiger is at one such juncture ... significantly amplified by fame ...

... we listen to his public statement and judge it for emotional honesty, a quality which manifests variably among the general populace, and we come to our own conclusions ... my mind tells me he is learning some personal humility which will serve him well going forward ... aaand, why do we care?

... because we believe in a Redemption Song ... "none but ourselves can free our mind" ... barring extreme recalcitrance or rare fortune we are all ultimately humbled by higher power before we die ... sometimes immediately before ...















... emerging from the shitter is a potential beginning for the redemptive ride Tiger can take on his way towards pole-vaulting the bar Jack Nicklaus set ... you don't have to be a golf fan to get that ... in the process he can give us all a look at what it takes to overcome personal adversity in whatever guise ...

... to those who would queue all night for some-a-dat particular type of adversity ... 'memba, it ain't about the details ... adversity is a "who feels it knows it" ting ... and, self-inflicted wound or not, you are unlikely to get to choose when it confronts you ... but redemption can be earned ...

... the gods must be angry ...

... it's getting hot in the kitchen ... tectonics are active in the Caribbean as Haitians can confirm ... reservoirs and water supplies in several territories are struggling to keep up with demand while political ennui still cedes leadership to street leaders and popular figures ... for better and for worse ...

... but imagine you were part of a residual population of about five thousand, in a place where the habitable landmass has shrunken by over two-thirds ... spare a thought for the isle of Montserrat where the Soufriere Hills volcano, dormant for all of recorded history, has resurrected itself ... for all of recent memory ...

... these days I'm considering the psychological effects of being up close and personal with the molten core of the planet ... Montserrat is thirty miles from where I am ... of course this means I don't feel the heat directly but I had cause to think, "hmmm ... a wha dis?," when shifting wind patterns brought a blanket of ash, or tephra, for the week just concluded ...















... when you think about it, the emissions have to go somehere ... lava ground oozes out of, and around, Earth's boil ... finer spew casts further afield ... the latest event looked a lot like this helicopter reconnaisance shot sent to me in October ...

















... thirty miles away asthmatics are compromised ... clothes, cars and deckchairs accumulate grimey sediment, landscape dullens to bleak ... and, with every dusty inhale our environmental psychology adjusts its concern level ... visitors too, from non-volcanic parts of the world, who were fortunate enough not to get caught up in flight-scheduling hell due to weather or ... gasp ... pyroclastic vulcanicity, get to breathe in a thick island breeze that actually has texture ...













... this photo of a famous Shirley Heights sunset horizon, taken a few days ago by my friend Bernd from Germany, shows the paradox of superb Montserrat visibility and the particle stream which came to occlude so much ... heading towards Antigua ...

... I'm not sure we can blame global warming for volcanos and earthquakes but we can link it to climate change and erratic weather patterns ... I'm pretty sure rain doesn't douse magma but it sure could ease regional water shortages and restore verdant gleam ... if only I had knowledge of an ancestral rain dance ...

... thou art Bob ... 65 candles ...

... February 6, 2010 might have seen a smiling Bob Marley blowing out 65 candles on an ital birthday cake, no doubt surrounded by grand and great-grand children, at a Birthday Bash to mark the occasion ... ... c'est la vie ...

... every once-in-a-while I encounter an incredulous query as to why Bob is such a revered figure ... few things irk me more ... but to balance that, even fewer things are as easy to counteract with anecdote, scholarship and evidence ... the veracity of Marley's outsized global footprint is unassailable ... so this time, rather than reiterate descriptives of The Legend, I've chosen to make commentary on random artistic interpretations of Marley appeal ... all gleaned from internet searches ...

... even a cursory surf yields numerous examples of Marley Art inna every style an' fashion ... many incorporate de rigueur Rasta colours indicative of Jamaica and Africa ... increasingly there are efforts which use the full hundred (or "hun-dread" - Bob loved wordplay) in terms of the color spectrum ... check the above work in oil by an artist called Andree ... below, a stretched canvas print titled "Get Up, Stand Up" by Ingrid Black that not only invokes Africa but various other cultures too, opting for hues of brown ... pan-culturalism in full effect ...

... soft tones selected also for the bloodstained, stencil texturing of the pensive-young-hipster-Bob, displayed on the Flickr photostream of user roxycrisp, remind the viewer Marley was both magnetic and prolific before iconoclastic dreadlocks and international exposure came along ...

... the aura of mysticism grew around Marley as his spiritualism chrystallized ... so too his status as griot-philosopher, elemental in world outlook ...

... I sometimes speculate about which specific aspect of Bob's life triggers someone to create a piece ... obviously the artist identified as jtabije was inspired by the Redemption Song lyric ... was it a sense-reverence for words that called for black and white presentation?... thoughts of war and peace?... lions and doves?... islands and continents?... all day and all night?... there's even a Buffalo Soldier if you look closely at this one ...

... it's a fact that there's more to Marley than marijuana ... and there's more to marijuana than Marley ... still, Bob was assuredly complicit in the inspiration for an entire industry of ganja art ... one result of this is that the stiff-necked can only see that dimension ... not so the artistic invention of samihavia who fuses a jacketed, mature-business-Bob to media and the music industry with clever choice of image, color and material ... interperative ites, green an' gold ... yet proudly Rasta ...

... statues, busts, caricatures ... literal renderings and photoshops ... not to mention the merchandising artwork on everything from tissue paper and belly rings to fashion gear and whatsitnot ... there is a lot of future landfill out there bearing the unauthorised image of Bob ... this will always be, given the pervasive popularity of the subject ...

... but there's also a growing body of expression touched-off by memories of Bob Marley and The Wailers, personal and second-hand ... I have no idea if artist T. Noll saw Marley in flight or if photographs sufficed to inform his depiction in oil-on-canvas of the incendiary depth of a Marley performance ... at any rate that inspiration made the original canvas 8'x9' in dimension! ... also available in smaller, numbered, hand-signed reproductions ...

... high-mindedness in the art world can minimize works on popular icons and famous-faces ... and to be fair, there is plenty sycophantic naivete on offer ... however, some of this Marley art reaches the psyche, touching inside with sheer honesty-of-effort and love ... strong Bob attributes, speaking to the enduringly positive legacy of this influential life ...

... in a visionary creation by Jamaican/Canadian artist Barrington Robinson, dubbed "Independence Now And Forever", there's inherent rapture of free-spirit ... a man and his movement of Jah people ... to the world! ...

... as a full fledged Marley appreciator from ever-since ... there isn't a time when I don't hear something new in the message, feel the power of the clenched fist, or revel in the lessons of Bob's emphatic life ... his art continues to flourish and multiply, one way or another, with every passing birthday ...

** UPDATE ** ... now open ... The Berhane Selassie Art Gallery ... located at Tuff Gong International, 220 Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston, Jamaica ... for more Marley art ...

... apres destructo cinema ...

... can't swear to it but I'm fairly certain this happens from time to time where you live too ... when the going gets tough, the tough go to the movies ...

... with Haiti on the mind and the perpetual high stakes of this complex existence we are a part of, screen fantasy can offer a pressure-release valve, a chance to visit another dimension or the illusion of one ... to breathe in a popcorn-scented, climate-controlled change from routine and limiting existences ... this is true even if the world you are transported to is post-apocalyptic ... or an imaginary, ex-planetary one ...

... I've got news for The Brothers Hughes ... if your story is set in a time following a great manifestation of pestilence or destruction ... and, you style the look of your film in the dusty tradition of Mad Max, you court the tag "post-apocalyptic" ... and, if you construct the sets to be reminiscent of wild-western towns, saloon, shoot-out street, head-'em-off-at-the-pass buzzard's-eye P.O.V. and all, then we will see cowboys and sheriff badges ... jus' so it go ... but why not?, these are genre choices which don't preclude the result being enjoyable ....












... so, when my son said he had strong thoughts of me as he watched The Book Of Eli, and really wanted to know what I thought of it, I was intrigued but thought better of digging too deep for fear of spoilers ...















... what I encountered at the cinema shortly thereafter was a seductively drab futuristic High Plains Drifter ... on foot ... but that wasn't all, this take on the doomsday scenario is as crisply conceived in its sense-of-self as any that preceded it within the genre, the difference here for me was in the pulse ...

... the broadly drawn, unhurried story developments liberated space between the superhero moments ... allowing time to luxuriate in the visuals and decide how to ... or whether to ... suspend disbelief around the nagging questions and doubts which are inevitable when the baddies are so mindlessly led by malevolence and negativity, to no relatable end ...

... my choice for saviour in this case is the consistently deft craftsman Denzel Washington, who walks the unlikely middle ground between Clint Eastwood and New York Governor David Paterson ... my turn with Vin Diesel et al in The Chronicles Of Riddick gave me first-hand exposure to how an actor manoeuvres behind permanent eyewear ... so, after watching, I can with some confidence, endorse Denzizzy as a past master of the art ...

... the "apres destructo" theme is worth a thought in these times ... so too are the psycho-spiritual constructs which inform the specifics of human morality and conduct ... it's a recipe for success if filmmakers can marry popular entertainment to a contemplation of higher calling ... hence the zen-cool, quick-draw defense of the Christian cornerstone enriches Eli in the same way James Cameron's paleo-astral metaphor for environmental responsibility has turned Avatar into his, and the world's, biggest grossing film ... in effect sinking the Titanic one more time ...














... the strong suit here is the scale and scope of Cameron's effort of course, more an indicator of where we are going than where we have been ...

... the vividly realized world of Pandora is rivalled in this film by subtexts in the shooting script ... the hardly veiled twin-threat of oppression and exploitation have the same familiar feel to them now as they had at the start of the previous decades ... if it is accepted that art mimics life then surely we must interpret the truths at the heart of this blockbuster statement as a cinematic challenge to make adjustments ...

... Jake Sully makes significant moves in his character arc, rejecting the part of himself that was obsolete and embracing that which was concealed behind "cultural" barriers ... why concealed, by whom and for what purpose, is for a different post ...










... "avatar" will become a common word I predict ... first used, then over-used and eventually mis-used, but Earth is our Home Tree and, in the absence of readily available alien life-forms, we get the chance to be our own avatars and merge with our fellow inhabitants ...

... I think that's essentially what Eli's book is trying to tell us too ... and, I must have gotten it across to my son at some point ... or maybe I just remind him of Denzel  ... ;-) ...

... hip-hop help Haiti heal ...

... there's a predisposition to sometimes label Generation Next as apathetic to world issues and detached from concepts of idealism and altruism ... a swathe of today society and the engine of the future to whom the whole concept of -isms is a dinosaur ...

... being a father of two young adults I have some insight into that relevant world ... it's to the benefit of all to pay attention to updates and note how newness develops ...

... a Jan.8th entry at http://www.pardonmyfresh.com/ matter-of-factly repped the Donations-For-Haiti Box at the Bape store in lower Manhattan ... I felt as proud as a Dad of the effort to contribute, 'cos as a father, I'd already been to this store ...
















... y'see, well before the earthquake in Haiti, on my last trip to New York City, I was dispatched there by my son who had eyes for Bathing Ape, Ice Cream, Billionaire Boys Club ... pricey street-fashion gear ... each a collection of edgy street-couture with that urban-cred requiring boutique-outlet addresses in the world's top style districts ...














... a store I may have only stumbled upon, or missed altogether, became a destination of purpose ... the Nipponese-Hip-Hop aesthetic screamed money and youth culture ... I felt cool, then soberingly uncool when asked not to take photos inside the store ... everybody knows there's espionage in the high-stakes image game ... doh! ...

... on my way out I snapped the bashy window display ... from outside of course ... the hot-footwear-on rotating-chrome display offering reflective visualization of the public image of hiphoprisy ... killer kicks ...















... emporia like Bape ... and afficionados from their target market responding to the catastrophe in the Caribbean go some way to proving that the two worlds, seemingly divergent, can and do have overlap at the point of conscience ... there's more than one way to make a difference ... props! ...

... a Haitian Comfort zone ...

... one day, not so long ago ... a floating symbol of sanctuary, immunity and hope pulled into my world and dropped anchor ... the bold red-crosses-on-white-background altered the view for long enough that vacancy seemed palpably wrong when it left ...

... every day for weeks I had a great view of the itinerant coterie operating from USNS Comfort ... I observed them at work and came to know their patterns ... the ritual clacka-clacka of choppers readily invoked images of M.A.S.H. and war-zones ... I was witnessing one arm of the octopus that is U.S. influence in the Central American and Caribbean arena ...

... if my observations are anything to go by, the drills executed during weeks of non-crisis service will serve everyone well in the coming months in Haiti ... many a doctor has commented since international earthquake response began, on the need to evacuate critical cases from field units to medically equipped locations ... Comfort comes fitted, stocked and trained for this sort of situation ... they run a continuous succession of round-trip sorties, by air and sea, moving medics, patients and supplies, to and from the converted tanker ...

... sailing from home port Baltimore this mercy craft/support vessel which saw duty in 9/11 Manhattan, the Iraq invasion to remove Saddam Hussein and hurricane Katrina, will reach Haiti in a matter of days ... this adds a flight deck which accomodates the largest helicopters, a thousand hospital beds and distilling plants which can turn 300,000 gallons of sea water per day into potable water ... not to mention the logistical expertise ...

... when raw power in imagery of stark destruction combines with emotionally demanding stories by the thousand, there has to be an attempt at balance with hopeful counterweight ... that's where my psychic energies go ...

... as Comfort drops anchor in Port Au Prince, hope finds another place to hang her hat ...